The shield and the bond

"You're so handsome… My mind is like ice cream…" I felt my cheeks burn red, while Markus put his head on my shoulder and laughed, pressing me tightly to himself. I hugged him tighter and put my head on his shoulder too. It was so good standing here with him; so calm and comfortable I have never felt before.

"You're so beautiful too…" he whispered to my shoulder, kissing it with his cold lips. The place where he left the kiss on my skin lit up like a fire, making me blush either from the compliment or the kiss. Suddenly, his phone vibrated, and he slowly took it out of his pocket, without saying any single thing, turn on the call, listening.

"Markus, we're waiting for the two of you in the training room. You're coming or being busy?" that was Raphael's voice, Markus's consigliere, whom I met yesterday. Markus chuckled, looking at me all the time Raphael was talking from his phone. I was just looking in his onyx eyes, studying their emotions.

"Indeed, we're busy. Five minutes…" he broke the call and put his phone back into the pocket, then put his hand on my waist and pressed me to his cold thin body. I smiled, then stroked his face with my finger, hugging his neck with my other hand. He turned me around in one quick move, opened the door leading to his room, got both of us inside, and closed the door, pressing my back to the door gently. I smiled.

"You care about my back?"

"I'm not sure if you want to have bruises on it… However," he lowered his head and put it on my left shoulder, "It's hard to control vampire powers. Sometimes, I can be too hard…"

"You're talking about the night?" I took his face in my hands and put it up, looking into his deep onyx eyes. He was embarrassed again and as a way out he coughs in his fist again. I smiled. "It was great, Markus."

That were the only words I could take out of my mouth, then I kissed his lips gently, run away from his hugs, and went to the shower. In a few minutes, I tried to have the fastest shower ever, I wrapped my body with a towel and went outside.

"I need to go out to my room to dress in…"

I looked at Markus standing half-naked near the bed. He was dressed only in black simple fit pants, which were good for the sport, and had a T-shirt in his hands, so when I went out, he looked at me with a look that I could hardly stand. I cleared my throat to continue my words, but he was first.

"I brought you what you need…" he put the black T-shirt on himself, while I looked around to see where he put my things and noticed neatly folded things on his… or our bed. I got closer and saw black organza lingerie I like to wear, black slim-fit pants and no T-shirt or anything I could wear on the top. I looked at Marcus, thinking how could he forget to take anything I can wear on the top, and I couldn't find any good explanation. He can't forget about such important things, so he might have something special for me?

"Have you brought anything for the top?" I asked while putting on lingerie and after that, I put on black fitted pants. Markus looked at me while running his hand through his hair. He was looking so innocent that I was ready to blame myself I haven't found anything on top even if he had forgotten it.

"I did, however, I threw it away…" he said without being sorry, then turned around and got something from the armchair standing not far away from the wardrobe, then turned back and gave it to me. I observed it quickly to understand it was his favorite black shirt. "It will suit you…"

"Are you one hundred percent sure we should…?" I took his shirt, put it on me, and started buttoning it without even looking at how I'm doing it. I concentrated on his pale face and his pink lips that were twitched into a smile.

"We should what…?" Markus runs through his white hair with his fingers again, as if teasing me. I turned to the mirror, looked at his shirt that I buttoned wrong, then gave up and turned to him.

"When I just got into your house, you said we should not hold hands or do anything else in a public that can expose us as lovers. Then we hold hands in front of your guys, and your consigliere even sees me in your room, and see how we're kissing each other, then you give me your shirt to wear for training… I just don't understand…" I told him everything that was bothering me at once, then unbuttoned his shirt in one and started again. It felt like I'm doing it for the first time in my entire life.

"For the first," he started, put his hands at my waist, turned me to him, put my hands down, and started quickly buttoning his shirt on me. His cold fingers were touching my body from time to time, making me tremble. "I was against showing everyone what's between us, but after they stole you…" He suddenly pressed me to his body and kissed my lips passionately, then whisper. "I was ready to set the whole world on fire, and now I'm going to protect my girl no matter what…"

His words made the ground vanish under my feet when he stepped away from me and looked at the clock on the wall, then at the silver watch on his wrist, then at me.

"We're ten minutes late…"

"Let's hurry up!" I took his cold hand with mine, and it made my cheeks blush. Markus chuckled, then started stroking my cheeks with his fingers. They weren't so cold as before.

"If you have any more questions, never resist yourself to ask them…" He squeezed my hand, led me out of his bedroom, then we went along the corridor straight to the room at the end of the corridor.

~Markus~

"Ah, we were about to go call you!" Raphael said impatiently, then looked at Aurora in my shirt, and frowned, "I see you had more important business than training with us!"

"Shut up," I ordered, and he quickly closed his mouth. I looked into his eyes, "I already warned you to watch out for your mouth, did I?"

"Sorry, Markus…" Raphael put his head down, feeling guilty for spoiling my mood. Aurora squeezed my hand in an attempt to cool down me and my fire. I'm fine, just don't like people talking with me in a way to show they mean something to me, or they are better than me. No one here is as important as Aurora. And it doesn't matter how long I know her. I never felt more protective over someone else.

"Do you have any news? Your mind-reading ability has improved, or…?" I asked, looking at Rick and taking control of my emotions. I can't lose my temper just for that. Moreover, Raphael is one of my closest old friends.

"Actually, I'm afraid it became worse, Markus… I can't hear your thoughts at the moment as well…" I looked at Rick and my eyebrow jumped to my forehead expressing my amusement, "But I can hear all the other thoughts in this mansion, except the two of you…"

I looked at him for some seconds, then looked at our hands, which we were supposed to not hold. But I didn't want to let her go away from me after that incident, and I don't care what they think. However, it gave me the exact idea of what's going on around here, so I looked back at Rick, then at Aurora, and down at our hands once more. If we share a unique bond each dhampir is believed to have, it could explain why Rick can't hear my thoughts. Aurora's mental shield was shared with me through her hand intuitively, without even her intention.

"It could be the mental shield and the bond. So, the mixture of both keeps my mind closed to you. I wonder, does it protect me from any other kind of attack as it protects her," I said, still holding her hand and looking at Rick.

"I doubt it can protect you from physical attack," Raphael said, looking at our hands and still thinking, "But I'm pretty sure it can protect you from any other kinds of attacks."

"I wasn't talking about physical attacks… at least for now." I said back to him, then looked at Rick, "Go and call here a few of our skilled friends."

"Sure," Rick bowed his head, then went out of the training room, while I looked back at Aurora, "Do you have at least a slight understanding of what's going on?"

"A little yes. I studied a bit in the books and internet about the mental shield you mentioned. It is believed that a mental shield is one of the strongest powers because it can block all kinds of psychic powers that act on invading someone's mind, however, it can't block physical attacks. They said a mental shield is a kind of elastic, invisible aura, that has one clear task — to protect its owner. It is very hard to control the shield due to this task," Aurora finally finished, then looked at me, "However, I don't know anything about the bond you mentioned."

"The bond I mentioned can be built only by a dhampir, and only with a vampire. Once it's built, they are connected forever mentally and physically in some way" I explained.

"It can explain why Rick can't read your thoughts when we hold our hands. I think because of our bond, my shield has one more task — to protect you, so it moved to you without even my intentions to do it or control it." Aurora said and looked at Raphael, "Can we somehow prove it?"

"I have one idea how to prove it. Aurora, take Raphael's hand as you were holding mine," I crossed my hands over my chest.

"Without thinking about moving my shield at him?" she got my thoughts right, so I nodded. Then, she looked at Raphael, and took his wrist, refusing to take his hand. She was still looking at me, holding his wrist. At the same time, Rick came inside and froze in the doorway.

"Just in time," I said, looking at him with my hands crossed on my chest. A few guys came inside after him, and stood in the doorway, looking at Aurora and Raphael.

"I can't feel anything special…" Raphael said, looking at me.

"However, I can. And I can sincerely say there's one problem. I don't know the task, but I can surely say I still can't hear Markus's and Aurora's thoughts but can clearly hear yours, Raphael." Rick looked back at the guys behind him and asked them to come inside the room, closer to me. I bowed my head in approval.